Thomas Holcroft's sixteen-year-old son William ran away from home on 8 November 1789, taking with him forty pounds and a pair of his father's pistols. He planned to travel to the West Indies but on 15 November his father and Godwin arrived at Deal and boarded the 'Fame' where he was hidden. On hearing them board the ship, William shot himself. Godwin wrote an account of the affair on 27 November. It was published as Tragical consequences, or, A disaster at Deal: being an unpublished letter of William Godwin dated Wednesday, November 18th, 1789 , ed. Edward Blunden (London: Fytton Armstrong, 1931).